The battleships took turns to dock for repairs, the cranes on the shore hoisted the required materials onto the warships, and the craftsmen sweated like rain.

Several generals discussed the distribution of the spoils of war amid the clanging of bangs.

The military expenses issued by the Ministry of Finance will certainly not be recovered, and the silk and other goods collected in the Philippines will be divided equally by the fleet according to their war achievements, and the average income will be about 30 taels for each sailor. Shou Zhi gave up his share, and according to the regulations, Shou Ling, as the commander of the fleet, could get the most share.

This money is not enough, and the Ministry of Finance will have to pay bonuses from this year's budget. Allemand offered him to add.

"We need 2 warships in Taipei, and the price of 6,000 taels of gold will be exchanged for the share belonging to the main fleet."

Shou Xuan raised an eyebrow, "Have you been mining well lately?" ”

Allemand grinned, "After a few years of hard work, I have saved up so little." ”

"Load." Collingwood looked incredulous.

"No opinion, then it's decided. Taipei took the two largest galin, and the dozens of cannons dismantled from the sunken ship were given to Kuching, which was converted into part of the wages for repairing the ship. The remaining 2 captured cruisers are given to me. ”

Collingwood had no objections, and the Galen of the 2 single-deck guns was not looked down upon by the native navy. Shou Xiang plans to send these two ships to Hainan Island.

Many soldiers get their money and spend it quickly, and rest requires other ways to relax, such as women.

The cost of repairing ships and adding officers and soldiers is more than 100,000 taels. The orderly placement of the Navy in Kuching is precisely to boost the local economy.

During this time, Shou Xian took time out to inspect the vast colony.

Borneo has a long navigable waterway and the main means of transport here is boats.

Kuching City is surrounded by land transport and the rest of the city is connected by inland waterways and offshore shipping. Large and small rivers that flow independently into the sea naturally form economic and administrative regions in the process of development.

Kuching City is close to the mouth of the Sarawak River and has a well-equipped harbour fortress, while the rest of the colonial cities are far from the coast.

Borneo is located in the tropics, and areas bordering freshwater and seawater are more likely to breed and have a higher incidence of malaria. Establishing cities in the middle and upper reaches is effective in reducing malaria incidence.

All of the Federation's colonies in Asia were able to grow cinchona trees, and after more than 10 years of painstaking cultivation, they barely met the medicinal needs of nobles, officials, and the military. It is still difficult for the public to obtain sufficient antimalarial drugs, and more relies on preventive means to control them.

Disease was the greatest factor restricting the development of the Confederation's power, far more so than the war with the Spaniards. Rough domestic estimates suggest that at the current pace, it will take another 10 years for the shortage of medicines to be alleviated.

The matter of farming is not in a hurry, so it can only be done step by step. The main concern of the order is the development of mines in Borneo.

Most of the small mines were given to the Ming army to retreat southward, and the Kuching Governor had in his hands three large mines, namely the Bau Gold Mine, the Bangda Gold and Copper Mine, and the Lupa Valley Coal Mine, as well as several secondary saltpeter mines in giant bat caves.

Regar accompanied Shou Xuan to inspect the mine.

The Bau Gold Mine is located on the edge of Kuching, which is the earliest and most mature mine in Borneo, and the road was built during the reign of Rega.

Bangda Gold & Copper Mine is not far from Kuching and requires a section of waterway before turning overland.

The Lupa Valley Coal Mine is entirely dependent on waterways, with only a short section of mine road.

The mineral distribution of Borneo has its own characteristics.

Due to geological tectonic reasons, gold and copper mines were located on the southwest side of the island in the later East Malaysia area, and their distribution was relatively concentrated.

The exterior features of the mines are also evident, with almost every mine having a rusted iron lid on it.

Take the compass to look for minerals, and there will definitely be a harvest where the magnetic needle spins. The iron cover of the mine is not thick, and underneath it are other metal ores besides iron. Smash open these iron covers, and the copper and gold veins below are revealed.

The smashed iron ore itself is small and generally has little economic value, and Chinese miners cut wood and burned charcoal to smelt on the spot in the spirit of not wasting it, and somewhat replenished some production tools.

Non-metallic minerals are located on the northeast side of the area and include coal and oil.

Keeping order opens the door to the era of thermal engines, and coal is the source of power and the blood of the new order.

The huge cast-iron arms go up and down, draining stagnant water from the pit, making a squeaky metallic grinding sound, which is the most beautiful music on earth.

The chimney spews black smoke all day long, and the abandoned water flows down the canal into the river, exuding a pleasant atmosphere of civilization.

The mine is surrounded by a green desert, and the gods have sketched the most beautiful picture scroll with serious and textured black lines in this pristine green mountain and green water.

The surrounding forest is so unsightly that the Orderly wants to turn it all into concrete. Holding a pool of clear water in his hand, he hoped that this was the inferior five types of water contaminated by industrial drainage. It's a pity that there are too few machines, and it's still too early to get to the ideal picture of order.

"Rega, after you took office, the output of the mine has doubled, and the country is very satisfied with your work. Especially for the navy, after they kept the copper in Taipei for their own use, the naval guns all relied on the Bangda gold and copper mines. ”

"Teacher, this is thanks to the atmospheric steam engine. My mine drains water 5 times more efficiently than animal power and costs less. ”

"How many steam engines do you have now?"

"There are 100 in total."

"Not enough, not enough, as soon as possible to increase to 500 units."

Rega's mouth opened wide, "500? ”

"There is no shortage of blacksmiths in domestic factories, so it is best for you to place an order and let them spin in a row."

Rhaegar wiped her sweat, "Is this necessary?" ”

"Of course."

Borneo's mines are not world-class mines, but this will be too early to reach the capacity ceiling. The requirements for order were not high, and the task he gave to Rega was to produce 5,000 tons of blister copper and 10,000 taels of gold per year.

"Then I need more people."

"How many people do you have now?"

"The situation in Kuching, you know, teacher, we can't count those semi-independent Chinese autonomous areas, I can only roughly judge from the food consumption, including the Nanyang aborigines, there are about 100,000 people in this area."

"I'm going to send more immigrants, you don't have to worry about the population, dig more mines, and give blood to our factories."

"I'll place an order when I get back."

Coming out of the mine, Shou Xian successively inspected the autonomous regions of several Ming army generals, and the first stop was Wang Zhiren, the former general of Zhejiang.

Borneo horses are scarce, and the means of transport for Wang Zhiren and Orderly is elephants. The car on the elephant's back was spacious enough to even fit a maid.

The maid peeled off the fruit, and Wang Zhiren said to Shouxu while eating, "I plan to cut down all this old forest and double the planting area of pepper." ”

Looking at the past, Wang Zhiren was wearing local clothes with silk texture, and he had lived a good life in the past two years, and his figure was obviously blessed. If you ignore the hair bundle, he looks a lot like the Nanyang upstart of the Federation. In Wang Zhiren's gestures, it was difficult to find traces of the Ming army's general soldier back then.

Shou Xuan smiled and said, "Boss Wang's business is prosperous." ”

Wang Zhiren touched his beard proudly, "Thanks to the guidance of the commander, the pepper I planted has sold very well in the past two years." ”

There is a strong demand for pepper in the Chinese market and the Japanese market, and although the unit value is not high, the quantity of this thing is large. Pepper is the fist agricultural product of Borneo.

"Prince, if the forest is cut down, I suggest you plant something else." ”

"Oh, what is it?"

"Rubber, oil palm, there are seeds in Kuching, they can be given to you for free, and someone will be sent to guide you how to plant them."

"Oh, is this thing profitable?"

"I can't say how much I can earn. But now that the generals of Borneo are growing pepper, and if there is too much, it is not worth much, so the prince might as well try to grow something else. ”

Wang Zhiren did not hesitate at all, "Okay, just plant what rubber and oil palm you said." ”

"The prince trusts me so much?"

"Listen to you, you won't miss it."

Shou Xuan smiled, raised his wine glass from afar, and talked with Wang Zhiren about wine.

Wang Zhiren enclosed a large area of land in Borneo, while keeping the island of Putuo in Zhoushan, and every year he was able to obtain immigrants from Zhejiang on his own.

This is the standard model of the Nanyang generals, enclosing land in Borneo and keeping a base on the mainland. The bases on the mainland plundered the population, and Borneo used the production to feed the forward bases. From Zhoushan to Qiongzhou, most of the fortresses on this line are supported in this way.

Compared to Zheng Chenggong, who monopolized the Zhangquan estuary and even controlled most of Zhejiang's maritime trade through the underground organization of the Five Mountains and Five Seas, most of the coastal Ming army could only rely on robbery and digging in the soil. There are some in Haimao, but only as a supplement. Japan exports silver and red copper, and Zheng Chenggong's network advantage in Japan is beyond the reach of others.

The Borneo Ming army referred to the practice of the earliest Chinese military immigrants in Houjiang Province, Xingping Bo Gaojie.

The Ming armies, large and small, all adopted the sub-feudal system. Wang Zhiren, Du Yong, and these general soldiers are feudal monarchs, and there are vassals at all levels. This is a top-down relationship between monarchs and ministers.

Some second-class military chiefs, such as deputy commanders and generals, were reluctant to become vassals, and the Kuching Council encouraged them to separate their own vassals.

In order to restrain these semi-independent autonomous regions, the Kuching Council sent inspectors to witness and supervise the performance of the powers and obligations of the Ming army.

In addition, the bottom-up Mingxiang Society (Mingxiang Society, Nanyang Chinese Autonomous Organization from the end of the Ming Dynasty, as opposed to the Qinghe Society) was organized from the bottom up in various places.

All freedmen are members of the Mingxiang Society, and the feudal lord has no right to make decisions on major matters in the fiefdom, and must be collectively decided by the Mingxiang Society.

At the same time, the Mingxiang Society has the functions of an ancestral hall and a religious place, and large-scale collective activities such as worshipping ancestors and worshipping the heavens are organized by the society. Chinese scholars are very familiar with this set of things, and the Borneo Mingxiang Society is a copy of the ancient Bo Society.

Normally, the people who presided over the business of the Mingxiang Society at all levels were civil officials who had withdrawn from the south. For example, Wang Zhiren's department, the person in charge of Mingxiang Society is Xu Fuyuan. The neighboring Huang Binqing department, the head of the Mingxiang Society is Cao Yunlin.

Wang Zhiren and Huang Binqing are relatively harmonious internally.

In the troubled times, the civilian officials who were attached to the military leaders were originally just vassals, and the Mingxiang Society allowed them to hold a certain amount of real power.

There are many civil officials who are fine, and Shou Yu understands that the prestige of a few leaders of the Mingxiang Society in the fiefdom is no less than that of the feudal monarch.

It was an inevitable process for civil officials to usurp feudal lords with the power of sacrifice and trial of cases, and the Kuching Council played a role in this.